​Almost twenty years ago, biologist E. O. Wilson published Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, in which he postulated that the various fields of human knowledge can be linked at a deep level and that one day we will unify the sciences and the humanities. But what about false forms of knowledge? Do they have a deep connection, too? Is there such as think as Collusion: The Unity of Anti-Knowledge? If there is, then Ancient Aliens represents collusion at its worst. Tonight’s episode plunges us to new lows when New Age guru Deepak Chopra brings his carnival of crazy claims about quantum consciousness to a program ostensibly, though rarely actually, about space aliens. All of this occurs in service of an episode dedicated to the Akashic Record, a name that should sound familiar since Ancient Aliens has already covered it several times before. The Akashic Record is a modern pious fraud, an alleged ancient Indian concept of a universal record of all past, present, and future knowledge accessible by psychic power.

​I discussed Ancient Aliens’ poor understanding of the Akashic Record back in 2013, in reference to the show’s use of it in “The Einstein Factor.” You can read all about it here, but the condensed version is as follows:

​The concept has its murky origins in some actual ancient Indian material, but material very different from the modern interpretation. The concept can be traced back, ultimately, to material from the Mahabharata, where Chitragupta, the son of Brahma, takes on a role similar to that of Jesus and Osiris in judging the dead. […] Helena Blavatsky, the fraudulent medium who started the cult of Theosophy, began incorporating Hindu and Vedic concepts into her system of belief, and she proposed several layers of cosmic consciousness that filtered knowledge downward from other realms to the earth. She did not, however, use the term “akashic records.” She discussed instead Akasha as a substance, like the “Astral Light” of Kabala, which is itself synonymous with all of time, all of space, and all of soul, though even she was not entirely consistent in her use of the word in The Secret Doctrine. She states that it is not ether, but it and ether are of one substance, like God and Jesus. At any rate, she doesn’t talk about Akashic Records as such; they are an extrapolation from Akasha.

​Later theosophists conflated this Akasha with the plane of ether and created a realm of potential future knowledge, but Edgar Cayce stole the idea wholesale and made it into a sort of cosmic library of Babel.

Segment 1I’ve long held that Ancient Aliens stopped being about space aliens years ago and is now a sort of propaganda arm for New Age religion, which explains why it is so much more interested in the mystery of consciousness than actual evidence for the existence of space aliens. In the first segment, we hear that the universe is a giant cosmic computer and that our consciousness taps into it the way that computers can tap into invisible wi-fi signals. This starts with a discussion of ancient Indian texts like those I discussed in my previous coverage of the Akashic Record, though I will note that in this version, the show actually acknowledges that the term “Akashic Record” is a modern coinage from Theosophy. The talking heads repeat old claims about new ideas and inventions beaming into human brains from the Akashic Record, but this leaves us with a problem: Theosophists attribute all of this to divine spiritual powers, and the very existence of a supernatural realm beyond the physical obviates the need for aliens to do the recording. Over the years Ancient Aliens has become Theosophy: The Series, and they pay for it in the lack of logical consistency when their putative subject buts up against their real spirituality.

Segment 2The second segment brings Giorgio Tsoukalos to Dario Nardi’s lab to subject Chopra to brain mapping to study his meditation. Nardi is a UCLA brain researcher and an author. He does real science, but he also applies it to some iffy applications, particularly in terms of personality—the Myes-Brigg test lacks any real basis but shows up in his work. Anyway, Chopra endorses the Akashic Record and says that all knowledge of everything that will ever be is embedded in the universe. We also hear about Ervin László, a Hungarian philosopher of science, who claims that there is an Akashic Field represented by quantum activity whereby information is embedded in the universe, that this information directs evolution, and that our minds are immortal. This leads into a lengthy discussion of quantum entanglement, which David Wilcock bastardizes into a claim that humans receive thought transmissions from the Akashic Record, which is the source of all original ideas and knowledge. We humans are mere radios.

Segment 3As we roll in to the third segment, a thought occurs to me: If the show admits that the Akashic Record is a modern “discovery” and claims that the Akashic Record is the source of all new knowledge, does that mean that it chose to reveal itself? If so, why only to nut jobs? What kind of perverse sense of humor does this fictitious record have?

Anyway, this segment focuses on a blind Bulgarian prophet named Baba Vanga who allegedly could predict the future. She died in 1996, and her record of prophecy was decidedly mixed, even assuming that all of the prophecies attributed to her are genuine. Many do not seem to have been reported in English before her death, or the events they allegedly describe. Some things she guessed right, such as the 44th president of the United States being Black. Some things were ambiguous enough to be interpreted in many ways, such as when she said America would be attacked by “steel birds,” which could refer to any attack by plane, conventional or otherwise, but is often interpreted as referring to 9/11 even though New York, terrorists, and other key details do not appear in her prophecy. Some things were wildly wrong, such as her World Cup predictions and the date she gave for World War III. Nevertheless, all of this led to a discussion of other prognosticators, like Nostradamus, with allegations that they gained their prophetic information from the Akashic Record, a record that is apparently incomplete and filled with typos, or at least cannot be read well enough to make it useful except in retrospect.

​Segment 4The fourth segment examines the fact that once technology and knowledge reach certain levels, the next step seems to occur to more than one person at the same time, such as the dual discoveries of calculus, evolutionary theory, telephone, radio, etc. Rather than see this as the product of similar minds working from similar foundations, the show suggests that supernatural powers beam the details to susceptible minds, which are not actually possessed of genius but rather are merely receivers for spiritual signals from particularly stingy librarians who make the receivers do all of the hard work of developing an insight into a finished theory or invention. So which theosophical Lord of Venus or resident of the Moon Chain beamed the idea for the ancient astronaut theory into these anti-geniuses’ minds? Apparently the same one that spoke to Nikola Tesla, whose fever dream while sick with the flu is taken as evidence that an otherworldly intelligence gave him the plans for alternating current. This leads to the absurd but disturbing situation where the show actively rejects its previous worship of Tesla as a genius wronged by society and has promoted him instead to saint, crediting him with experiencing a theophany and witnessing “more than anyone should” of the realm of glory beyond physical reality. To that end, Tesla is no longer important as an inventor or even as a person but rather as a conduit for a connection to the divine, an example of the promise of the ancient astronaut theory for uniting believers with the gods.

For those of you keeping track at home, this segment ended around 45 minutes into the hour-long episode, and as of this point space aliens have not been discussed on a show called Ancient Aliens. That will finally change in the next segment.

Segment 5The fifth segment returns to Baba Vanga and her allegation that alien spacecraft will arrive sometime in the next century of so. She also claims that humans will have colonies built by aliens under the sea, and that we will have a nuclear war with our Martian colonies by the end of the twenty-second century. Making no effort to evaluate the truth of Vanga’s prophecies or the plausibility of her claims, the show instead goes on to talk about Elon Musk’s desire to colonize Mars, attributing it to commands beamed into his head from the Akashic Record. Even though humans have dreamed of visiting Mars for centuries, and of meeting aliens there (don’t let the show see Edison's Conquest of Mars!), the show pretends that this is something new and that the Akashic Record is “pushing” us now to colonize the planet. Lacking anything better to do with their time, the show revisits John Brandenburg’s allegation that Mars displays evidence of an ancient nuclear war, which you will remember from the show’s dedicated Mars episode back in season six.

​Segment 6The final segment reports on claims that the fabric of the universe is made up of computer code, and therefore reality itself is a digital construct. Giorgio Tsoukalos suggests that this means that the universe itself is the same as the Akashic Record and that both are essentially the same as the cloud computing that currently stores your photos and cat videos. The narrator tells us that this means that we lack free will, and Deepak Chopra says that we are a “biological robot” unless and until we gain knowledge of the true nature of the universe. This show isn’t one to get into the deep questions of free will vs. determinism, or hard vs. soft determinism, so essentially it opts for a religious explanation: Everyone else is controlled and deceived, but we few, we happy few, we band of brothers who see the truth behind the lies are the only ones truly free. This is also the plot of The Matrix, but I assume that this is totally a coincidence.

Thanks for the summary. I gave up on the trash once it got into Tesla. I have been catching up on past episodes, though.

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bill

9/30/2017 11:47:02 am

brain washing goes to the marrow

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Only Me

7/14/2017 10:45:30 pm

"The Akashic Record is a...universal record of all past, present, and future knowledge accessible by psychic power."

"Giorgio Tsoukalos suggests that this means that the universe itself is the same as the Akashic Record..."

I'm sorry Ancient Aliens. Could you please explain how those claims are IN ANY WAY DIFFERENT to the beliefs of the world's main religions? You're merely substituting "God" with "Akashic Record". I see why you're entertaining the aliens = angels/demons argument.

The Matrix comparison is apropos, as I'm sure all of these clowns see themselves as Neo. Forgive me for not wanting to follow their white rabbit.

there is a big difference between an all knowing all remembering Creator Who will someday judge all, and an impersonal etheric akashic whatnot with all events stamped on it.

if it exists, it is useless as a source of knowledge because by definition it will have all events, which include statements and thoughts and propaganda and false history and so forth. all jumbled up. useless. I don't believe it exists, but if it does it is useless to try to read.

A hilarious incident was a couple of proto Nazi types Webb in one of his books described, who decided from the akashic records that adam and eve were giants (I think glowed in the dark) and ate nothing but cabbage and cold water and would have conquered the world except some jewess named Helga turned them onto beer, which was the fall of mankind. (I guess this couple of akashic record readers were teetotalers.)

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Only Me

7/15/2017 01:37:18 am

"if it exists, it is useless as a source of knowledge because by definition it will have all events, which include statements and thoughts and propaganda and false history and so forth."

Again, this isn't really different from an all-knowing God, as the clowns on the show are assigning agency to the Record itself. It should be noted the act of beaming knowledge into the minds of humanity's geniuses was originally explained as the direct intervention of aliens.

This episode was about a pseudo-religion where humans are receiving the blessings of a supernatural entity either through the entity itself (Akashic Record) or its messengers (aliens).

One doesn't have to be religious to see the obvious parallels.

who cares

9/30/2017 11:49:31 am

only idiots believe that God judges us

Shane Sullivan

7/15/2017 11:23:42 am

Notice also,

Proposition #1: The Akashic Record contains all information
Proposition #2: The Universe is the Akashic Record
Conclusion: Therefore, Examining the Universe will allow us to LEARN INFORMATIONS!

Which is, somehow, *totally* different from the material sciences. Totally.

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who cares

9/30/2017 11:48:28 am

brainwashing goes to the marrow

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Americanegro

7/14/2017 11:28:16 pm

ākāśa means space, and to say it is "conflated" with ether is to misstate. Hinduism's concept of physics is at least as wrong as 19th century Europe's: both believed in an ether. Ours was luminiferous, theirs (ākāśa) was tied up with sound.

The idea of the universe being all information and a computer dates back at least to Rodney Collin-Smith, Colin Wilson, and John Lilley. This is far from new territory.

The show lost me at Deepak Chopra. He is a "biological buttbot". If he got a Jayne Mansfield Haircut I'd be okay with that.

The editor who puts together AA appears to have ADHD the way they jump from one disconnected premise to another.

Its almost like they have a computer program which searches through all past episodes for the current topic (e.g. Akashic record)
and it spits out all segments in which the phrase is mentioned. It then stitches all those segments together, arbitrarily throws out anything running over an hour, then cans it as tonight's show.

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TheSmartestGuyInTheWorld

7/15/2017 08:43:02 am

I don’t know anything about akashic but I do know the first rule of business success is WEAR A TIE! I only saw 2 ties on last night’s show. Just two! Brandenburg and Young. Very, very classy guys! CLASSY! As for the rest of them: Little Giorgio, Willcook and Childless - NO TIES! Just because your show airs on casual Friday is no excuse for dressing like hippies. Ancient Astronaut theorist want to know: why are we such losers? TIES! Sad...

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TONY S.

7/15/2017 01:08:19 pm

Ah yes, of course. The Akashic record. It's comforting to see that at the end of the day they never stray far from their Blavatsky inspired roots.

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Graham

7/16/2017 10:09:18 pm

Back in the 1990s I read a spoof of the New Age Movement that offered to sell the entire Akashic Record on CD...!

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Anon

7/15/2017 01:18:12 pm

So I am just waiting for them to trot out Lord Maitreya for a guest spot or skype with martians.

Title of show should be changed to

The Freemasons & Illuminati Alien Propaganda Show

should also get Alex Jones and Glen Beck to come make guest spots they need new followers to mind bend as well.

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Aaa

7/15/2017 01:27:01 pm

The idea of Akashic Record will make more sense once we realize that all of Life is one Being. There is no separation of anything from anything. This one being is basically entertaining itself by dividing itself into many parts using the principle of a hologram. These parts also include us, humans. And because we are one with Life it is possible to receive information from all places and times, because time is just an illusion and all events are happening right now.

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Americanegro

7/15/2017 01:31:32 pm

You sound like you're trying to get into a particularly dimwitted college girl's pants. Go Occupy something.

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AAA

7/15/2017 01:46:35 pm

I suggest you study work of David Bohm, also quantum physics in general that has proven nonlocality a long time ago. Including the fact that present can change the past. Also worth reading is Michael Talbot's book Holographic Universe. And books by Neale Donald Walsch, Dolores Cannon, David Wilcock. Of course humanity is a project of extraterrestrials the same way should we colonize some inhabitated planets in the future life there would become our project.

Aaa

7/15/2017 02:14:34 pm

It should have been "uninhabited planet".

Americanegro

7/15/2017 03:19:41 pm

David Bohm was a fine physicist but as an ontologist sucked. Thank you for the cloud of dust in the rear view mirror reading list, but don't try to teach your grandmother to suck eggs. You = moron. Dimwitted college girls laugh at you.

Americanegro

7/15/2017 03:23:54 pm

"I suggest you study work of David Bohm, also quantum physics in general"

Sure, I'll just go to grad school on your recommendation. Do you even math bro? The way you talk I suspect not.

Mark L

7/16/2017 10:52:54 pm

What the hell has Occupy got to do with anything he said? Go support some awful pro-war rightist cause.

Americanegro

7/16/2017 11:35:55 pm

While the Occupy movement had nothing to do with war, instead being a scheme to get into the pants of dimwitted college and Starbucks girls, run by guys who didn't understand the scam the even the Huffingtonpost now admits was run by Obama, assery tends to bleed over into all aspects of life, as you so aptly demonstrated.

Prowar (which I am NOT) does not equal "rightist". There's plenty of blame to go around.

Well, if you wish to simplify a whole lot of stuff you never studied nor could understand, all you need to do is find that point where the micro and the macro play by the same set of rules. Create an environment where a nuclear reaction cannot take place and there you have it; peace in our times. But for that whole black hole thing... which might rain on that parade.

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Kal

7/15/2017 01:43:16 pm

This episode sounds like a hot mess.

I will merely quote from Plan 9 from Outer Space.

"Well, we tried plans 1 through 8, but they wrre not successful. We shall use plan 9, which deals with the resurrection of the recent dead." The Commander, paraphrased

"These are future events, about the future! They will be revealed...in the future!?" Crizwald the Psychic, (yeah right).

The sentence ends with qwhat seems like him asking if it's trhe future. Ha. Doesn't he know?

It's not that the newly rediscovered old fake record is fake,, it's that people are uninformed and will watch anything, even if it is fake. Look at reality TV, which has dumbed huanity down for the past 27 years.

IF AA is trying to make a Theospony cult, it will fail, as unlike the other space cult, Scientiology, (volcano gods and alien souls, mind engrams, etc, which is a surprise AA hasn't done a full episode on Scientology), there is no apparent endgame, such as they take your money and they have your info so you can't leave. They just continue to spout of a strange from of made up stuff.

Gotta love the chutzpah of the wild haired host dude, who looks like he belongs in an old Ed Wood movie.

"The saucer ships! The saucer ships!"

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Americanegro

7/15/2017 04:21:33 pm

"IF AA is trying to make a Theospony cult, it will fail, as unlike the other space cult, Scientiology, (volcano gods and alien souls, mind engrams, etc, which is a surprise AA hasn't done a full episode on Scientology), there is no apparent endgame, such as they take your money and they have your info so you can't leave. They just continue to spout of a strange from of made up stuff."

As long as I can get My Little Theospony stickers I'm okay with it. I'm waiting for their "Gods and Earths" (google it) episode where they tell the story of Yakub.

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Robber

7/16/2017 04:24:55 pm

Good point. Why no AA episode about scientology? Conspiracy?

Brady Yoon

7/17/2017 01:13:14 am

The Akashic Record sounds like an ancient version of the Internet.

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TONY S.

7/17/2017 08:37:29 am

Except it was entirely the product of a Russian woman's delusional mind.

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TONY S.

7/17/2017 08:41:19 am

Blavatsky's ISIS UNVEILED and THE SECRET DOCTRINE are more fantastical than Tolkien and less intellectually stimulating than grasshopper dung.

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Bob Jase

7/17/2017 01:00:58 pm

You'd think someone would have had the sense to start a company called Akashic Records by now - be a heck of a label even if they confined themselves to 78's.

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Americanegro

7/17/2017 02:30:13 pm

Measure twice, cut once--and a cautionary tale:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Smith_(musician)

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Jason Colavito

7/17/2017 03:40:12 pm

Negro you are dumb. Negroes were better off as slaves.

Americanegro

7/17/2017 03:51:47 pm

Yes, I have seen your baseball. Lighten up Francis. The eagle does not hunt flies.

Kal

7/18/2017 03:02:41 pm

Akashic Records is a book, and a company, and probably somewhere is a fringe new age band. Still doesn't make it really true.

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Americanegro

7/18/2017 04:18:00 pm

Was it the mongoloid portion of your brain that thought you needed to point that out?

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Kal

7/18/2017 08:48:48 pm

“Don’t believe everything you hear. Real eyes, realize, real lies.”

Let's see if we can name the author of this quote. Don't just google it.

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Americanegro

7/18/2017 10:50:31 pm

Was it the mongoloid portion of your brain that thought you needed to ask that?

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Kal

7/19/2017 12:05:00 am

So you (one of you) don't know who the quote is from. Got it. And you pretend to be well schooled in pop culture and street talk. I will let you keep guessing. I'm sure one of you has already figured it out. If you were actually street, you would totally know it.

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Americanegro

7/19/2017 12:36:06 am

Was it the mongoloid portion of your brain that thought I should aspire to be "street"?

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Kal

7/19/2017 11:53:53 am

Answer the question. Where is the quote from. Prove that this is not simple trolling. All of you may answer it. I suspect some of you know it right off the top of your head. It's not all that hard. Yu can even guess wrong. But at least guess.

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Americanegro

7/19/2017 09:47:32 pm

How stupid is the mongoloid portion of your brain? I am not your dancing monkey you goddamn racist child molester.

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Floyd

7/22/2017 01:34:29 pm

So I suppose that you people dont believe in quantum physics or for that matter invisible radio waves and cosmic rays that pass through us and our "solid" walls. How about having an open mind to what you cannot see, touch or feel ? And I think the show mentioned the Indian gods as being from another planet pretty early on in the episode, so yes Ancient Aliens is still about ancient aliens ! May you all have a transformative day ! :-)

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Americanegro

7/23/2017 02:25:11 pm

I'll go you one better. I don't believe in arithmetic or levers. Your Mossad smokescreen doesn't fly with me.

for more information, on "Our Course in the Stellar Space" please visit following web page

https://sites.google.com/site/ourcourseinthestellarspace/

Why did Pope Benedict XVI resign? - the akashic records – The Leathal Qualitative Human Choice - A One World Government - The Divine Planning of Evolutionary Course of theMankind on the Earth and in the Stellar Space.

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